I made a still with a soup pan and a doughbowl, the seals I tried were; rubber gasket - too stiff and smelly silicone rubber tubing sliced open - well ok sort off, not perfect silicone gasket or as the packing say's Form-A-Gasket no.6 I aplied it as a thin stripe and let it dry. Now i placed the dough bowl on it and fastened it (check my website I don't know exactly how to describe my contraption) Its been opened and closed now for about 15 times and still ok. And when its damaged easy repair or exchange with a new layer. Oh the manufacterer is Loctite and its called Blue Silicone RTV Catalog number 18869 and is also sold in europe

Gateswood Quarterhorses confirms this as suitable;

High-temp RTV is stable to 650° F. (intermittent) and resistant to most shop fluids. I assume this could include alcohol. It is also pressure resistant. Not recommended for contact with gasoline but I've had no problems with diesel fuel.

I would think that after it has fully cured it would be safe and effective for patching a still.

Rob van Leuven writes :

I have used a so-called aquarium grade silicon; after it has cured completely and the vessel (or fishtank) has been rinsed with water a couple of times, it does not release any chemicals. If it did, it would kill the fish immediately, because they are especially susceptable to chemical pollution (especially sea fish). The sealant/adhesive is resistant to temperatures up to 150 Celsius and inert to most solvents, acids etc...

If you want to make a removable gasket, you can squeeze a large blob of sealant between two panels of melamine faced chipboard which you have previously covered in dishwashing detergent (fairy liquid). Don't forget to separate the two panels with spacers which have the same thickness you want the gasket to have. After it has cured completely you can cut out the right shape with a sharp knife; put the gasket in boiling water for a while to remove any residues and you have a longlife silicon rubber gasket! Necessity is the mother of invention as the Irish say:)

Harry advises:

The trick is to use non-acetic cure silicone. IOW, if it smells like vinegar when it's curing, it's no good. RTV (i.e. (R)oom (T) emperature (V)ulcanizing silicone works fine. I use Selley's Roof & Gutter Sealant (look it up). The last seal I made for my copper boiler was nearly 3 years ago now, and it's still working fine. YMMV.

How to connect the column to the pot lid ? Scott writes ...

use a sink strainer. Mine is nickle plated bronze that goes for $10 here in the US. It has two thread diameters. The larger one is screwed into a hole in my lid that I cut and rounded with a Dremel (this takes a bit of patience). An added bonus is that the strainer has crosshairs that keep the packing out of the pot. The smaller diameter screws into a female, 1.5 in. copper fitting that costs about $4. An inert rubber gasket or aquarium grade silicone provides the seal. I used a beer mini-keg gasket that cost me $1. I also use a bit of PTFE tape on the thread just to be safe, and this cost me $1.

The boiler is a 20 quart, el cheapo s.s. stock pot that I got for $14 at "McFrugals" here in California. Because it's thin steel, I use pipe insulation tape that runs for $5.

So, the total cost, minus the Dremel, was $35 US for the strainer, pot, gasket, PTFE tape, copper fitting, and pipe thread.

Basically that whole thing is about using inappropriate sealing materials.

Then there is this which talks about using polycarbonate as well as RTV

Parent site wrote:In the photos section, you might have seen the pictures of Rays Keg still. Here's how he did it ...

I cut the hole out with a friend's plasma torch. I make a fixture using the top piece of the original valve (see the large ring) which fits perfect into the opening. Next, I used a brass nipple, cut it, and turned the inside diameter to match he plasma torch tip. I silver soldered it together using welding rod bent to match the radius of the keg. Kind of a kluge, but it worked well. Here are some pictures of it with the cut out piece.

At first I had leak problems because the hole I cut into the keg was so close to the seal, it had to be centered exactly, or it leaked. Using the same seal, I cut a polycarbonate disk and placed it against the seal, added a gasket and it worked fine. Leaving a flat surface for the seal, and the keg convex top cant miss the gasket. The gasket width gave me a lot more flexibility with centering to the hole. You can see the line around the opening, the original seal locates inside the line.

Next, I built another lid (untried as of yet) but cut a .5" wide, .075 deep grove around radius, which will center on the keg opening and filled it with RTV. It should be reusable several times, and it fits really nice. The first pix shows the 2-15 degree angles on the copper disk edge, that really helps keep the seal (black) in place. I use a brass pin in the bottom of the column to hold the packing in place, easy to remove so the polycarbonate disk can be slid on.

While I was making plastic circles and a big mess in the garage I cut this one to fit a stainless pot with a flat edge. I used a paper gasket, and lots of clamps to hold it down, that's how I got the mini model (see the photos page). This looks lots simpler without clamps.

And, last but not least, (while I was continuing the mess in the garage) I made a smaller disk and put a hole in it to match a carboy. Now, the standard fermentation lock and cork will fit, and I can use the keg for a ferment container. Still working on a good wort recipe, after that I'll try this setup. The brown protective paper is still attached, that gets removed.

parent site wrote:The diameter of the tubing depends on the heat - for most stovetop models (typically built out of a pressure cooker) 1/4 to 1/2inch tubing is used for the lyne arm and the condensor. The narrower the tubing is, the lower the heat setting you need to use. The condensor running off of your potstill can be whatever diameter you have (provided it's no smaller than 1/4")

Of course we know that 3/8" is minimum with 1/2" preferred and they are no longer typically built out of pressure cookers.

Corrected. Please proofread it and comment.

Sometimes people get confused and think it is OK to use 3/8" O.D. for a worm so can you note that when we say 3/8" is the minimum what we mean is I.D, not O.D.

Thank you again.

Sometimes I pretend to be normal but it gets boring so I go back to being me

parent site wrote:The diameter of the tubing depends on the heat - for most stovetop models (typically built out of a pressure cooker) 1/4 to 1/2inch tubing is used for the lyne arm and the condensor. The narrower the tubing is, the lower the heat setting you need to use. The condensor running off of your potstill can be whatever diameter you have (provided it's no smaller than 1/4")

Of course we know that 3/8" is minimum with 1/2" preferred and they are no longer typically built out of pressure cookers.

Corrected. Please proofread it and comment.

Sometimes people get confused and think it is OK to use 3/8" O.D. for a worm so can you note that when we say 3/8" is the minimum what we mean is I.D, not O.D.

cranky wrote:http://homedistiller.org/fruit/wash-fruit/mockbrandyI just read this page over and over again and can't really put my finger on why it just seems wrong, maybe it is the ice in the lid of the pot while boiling and simmering 40-50% alcohol for 4 hours in a sealed or semi sealed pot or maybe it is something else but to me something just seems so wrong with this page.

Need more opinions on this. I could always either wipe it or just put in a big disclaimer. I have never tried anything like this. The whole "use neutral spirits and some flavoring tinctures to make a copy of your favorite drink" is one of the reasons I first put out the UJSSM recipe in the first place.

der wo wrote:Because of the thread here: viewtopic.php?f=1&t=66336Perhaps we should replace the azeotrope number 95.6% with 97.2%. Or write 95.6 abw (alcohol by weight).For example here:http://homedistiller.org/theory/theory/strongThe graph is about alcohol by volume, but in the text:Note that only 96.5% ethanol can be obtained by regular distillation of alcohol & water.

cranky wrote:I know I may have a bit of a jump on people because I started making this list as the beginnings of the spoon feeding thread but I hope the other members are busy going through here to help improve the parent site. I know it is a bit tedious but just take some time, pick a page, read through it and make notes, before you know it you have made it through an entire page, then take a break and be silly on the forums for a bit and soon we will have the parent site cleaned up and full of the good useful safe information it should have.

Dean Watts comments : My still has a Plastic boiling chamber (basically a brew barrel which you can by the way, see through and see the wash boiling correctly.) This then connects to a plastic reflux tower which is 11cm wide by 30cm tall. Then it connects to a Copper head (another 18cm high) unit which has the reflux condenser inside mounted about 9cm from the top. As the copper head is the last thing to be assembled you can only put media in the 30cm Tower.

Plastic still with plastic column! nuf said.

and this oneBob's MoonWater Still at http://www.encode.com/exechas a dead link. I think there are probably a lot of dead links that someone may look into.

Fixed these too. Wow.

I feel a bit like I'm nit picking but I was just proof reading this page and apparently I missed this the first couple times I read this page http://homedistiller.org/equip/photos-soldUnder "Modifying the Still Spirits Reflux Still" "Wal writes..."

Parent site wrote:Instead of welding, this time I used an 'epoxy steel' glue - an 'araldite' formulated for metal (See photos No 1, 2, 3, 4 - use horizontal scroll bar). I also made a bigger boiler using a second-hand heavy duty plastic drum, in which I drilled 2 holes and attached 2 x 1300w replacement hot water jug elements (See photo No 5).I use the drum also for malting grain by heating the water to 75C. For those who like me have minimal workshop skills, this is one way of improving a standard off-the-shelf unit in an economical way...(At the end of the post) It was a bit of a 'I can do it too' exercise, and interest in the matter made me post my photos to stimulate others. The plastic drum idea is much simpler than beer kegs and only AU$20!.

Another plastic boiler and a column glued together with some sort of epoxy, With pictures of the plastic boiler.

Sometimes I pretend to be normal but it gets boring so I go back to being me

I'm just a nooby upstart around here, but I would wager you could save yourself a whole lot of work and hassle by scrapping the old forum and rolling all the content into a wiki that can be edited by members.

I tried to run thumper.xls, found on http://homedistiller.org/equip. But I can not get it to calculate: I get a whole sheet with #NAME? or #VALUE?. It seems not possible to run the macros, but I am not sure.I like the way the temperature is treated, I made a model myself avoiding the temperature.

Do I do something wrong with the spreadsheet or is it flawed?And is it worth making such a model? I doubt if my model gets the same results as the real thumper, so I doubt its usefullness.

My two cents is we don't need a parent site at all, just a wiki and a forum. Whatever is on the parent site is presumably just going to duplicate what's on the wiki and the forum, but it's not editable by the community. A wiki is a proven way of crowdsourcing good content and sharing the labor.

I plan to get stuck into the wiki when I get some spare time from work projects. I'm not a super experienced distiller, but I'm a half decent copywriter and can do grunt work.

EventfulAnimal wrote:My two cents is we don't need a parent site at all, just a wiki and a forum. Whatever is on the parent site is presumably just going to duplicate what's on the wiki and the forum, but it's not editable by the community. A wiki is a proven way of crowdsourcing good content and sharing the labor.

I plan to get stuck into the wiki when I get some spare time from work projects. I'm not a super experienced distiller, but I'm a half decent copywriter and can do grunt work.

EA

Perfect, because I'm an experienced distiller but formatting/gussying up aren't my strengths.

I am getting as much of the wiki back as I can, then I/we can start working on bringing the best parts of the home page into the wiki. Once that is done, we can replace the home page with the wiki.

The home page gets dated and is very hard to edit. It's some serious php code my friend did a few years ago. If we go with the wiki as the home page, it can be edited and refined over time, and people can keep it up to date with the latest in distillation trends/ideas.